1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement in char marking equipment used in cooking food on a continuously moving food product conveyor. More specifically, the present invention pertains to a unique combination of charmarker rings and a shaft that keeps the rings synchronized as they rotate over food that passes below the rings on the conveyor. Each char marking ring is provided with outwardly extending spaced apart rods that contact the food as the food passes under the rings, thus forming a grid pattern of marks on the food.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,201 teaches a charmarker for marking meat patties with parallel charred dark stripes. To enable the invention taught in the 201' patent to operate, a cylindrical shaft is provided horizontally above a moving food conveyer and a plurality of heated char marking rings hang on the shaft so that there is a small space between the lowermost portion of the rings and the conveyer. When a meat patty is placed on the conveyer, the conveyer moves the patty beneath the shaft so that the heated rings encounter the patty. When the heated rings encounter the patty, the rings are forced to travel over the patty by the attachment of the rings to the shaft, thus creating parallel charred dark stripes on the meat patty as the rings roll over the patty.
The problem with this type of char marking is that the parallel dark stripes that are produced on the patty do not resemble the type of marking that a patty receives when it is cooked on a grill. Thus, esthetically, the parallel marking pattern is not as desirable as a grid pattern of marking, such as the type of marking that would have been created on the patties if they had actually been cooked on a grill.
Since the travel of the rings over the patties has, until now, not been synchronized, it was impossible to create a grid pattern of marking on patties by employing independently moving char marking rings. Obviously, the rings could be modified so that they would create a grid pattern on patties if their travel over the patties could be synchronized in a way that kept cross marking members provided on adjacent rings properly aligned with each other. If cross marking members were provided on the rings of the 201' patent, a regular cross marking pattern would not be created, but rather the cross marking would be irregular and disorganized. This disorganized result would result because each ring would have traveled over the patties independent of the travel of adjacent rings.
The present invention addresses this problem by providing a shaft that maintains the rings in synchronized travel. The shaft of the present invention is provided with ridges that engage teeth that are provided on the rings in order to keep the rings synchronized as they pass over patties. In addition, cross marking members are provided on each of the rings in order to create a grid pattern on the patties as they pass under the rings.
One of the advantages of the present invention is that it allows food to be marked with a diamond-shaped grill mark or any other custom designed grill mark on cooked or ready to cook food products to simulate an open flame cooking process. The improvement over the prior art char marking equipment is the ability to produce complex grill mark patterns using multiple independent floating rings that conform to the contour of the food product while the rings remain synchronized.